AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX

[sepheronx]

Good review wiz

What a hog overpriced piece of shit of a cards launch.

I'll be skipping this gen

 

[AusWolf]

Oh God, don't get me started on the total lack of low end stuff. I went with a rx 560lp years ago instead of a 1050ti, and felt the 1650 wasn't enough of an upgrade.

What do I get? No cards from Nvidia that fit in the 75w tdp required for low profile cards, Intel's ARC a380 being a mess and requiring bios settings my old optiplex media machine doesn't have, and AMD throwing out the laughingstock rx 6400 when they have mobile gpus like the 6650m or 6700s that would have done the job FAR better as 75w desktop parts.

My only hope now is some Chinese brand takes aforementioned mobile GPUs and makes a low profile model out of them

The 6400 is not a bad card with its 55-ish W TBP, if your system has PCI-e 4.0, or if you don't mind sacrificing some performance in some games with 3.0. It's just too expensive for what it is.

 

[LuxZg]

Isnt it time for a RT average chart? Also what about FSR 2 vs DLSS 3.0?

I read your mind earlier today, check the RT page

How about RT price/perf chart, dollar per RT frame, etc ? Should be 5-10 minutes of work now that you have averages and prices from other chart. Well, hopefully, unless you don't draw charts by hand

 

[Gica]

Nvidia just 2 years ago released the 1030 with DRR4 ram under the same name and everything as the 1030 GDDR5! They just did the same just like 3 weeks ago with the RTX 3060 8GB, its a cut down card from the actual 3060, but you don't have that info anywhere! They are literally selling a 3050 with the same name as a 3060!

Again ALL of the Nvidia crap and BS and incompetence or greed or scams and whatnot never gets brought up! Nvidia is literally 10x times worse than AMD in terms of bad drivers, bad products, misleading products, scams, false narratives, false advertisement, anti consumer fraud, monopolistic tendencies, etc...

And UR utter BS about $200 7900XTX is actually mentally insane, even if you measure JUST the production cost of the 7900xtx or RTX4090 just those are over $300, just the production cost! Do you forget about R&D, testing, marketing, transportation, drivers and features development, packaging, paying royalties to various groups and consortiums, profit margin leeway for AIB partners, etc...

You can NOT claim that AMD or Nvidia can sell their cards at $250, the price for 4nm and 5nm process node is extremely expensive, the nodes are new and therefore more error prone so that means less GPU's comes from a single wafer compared to a more mature process, the GPU's are generally bigger to make, etc...

Literally everything you said in your post is complete and utter FUD!

The RTX 3060 8GB uses the same chip as the 12GB version (GA106-302-A1 versus GA106-300-A1). The same number of cores, SM, CUDA cores, Tensor, etc., even the same frequencies. Only the amount of memory and bandwidth differ. The original chip was modified only on the bus (128 versus 196 bits) to support 8GB of vRAM. Theoretically, the 8GB version is cheaper.
GT1030 remains a wanted video card because there is nothing in the area that can compete with it (I'm not talking about gaming) and be more energy efficient. AMD has left such a huge void in the low cost area because even the ancient GT 710 survives and sells well.
What do you say about this:
See reviews with ryzen 3000 (example), you like the performance and buy a 3xx0G. At home, you find that you have a processor from the old series, 2000, and an integrated graphics that only shines in games.
You advertise PCIe 4 for the 5700X without saying that it brings zero performance gain.
I can continue until I reach the Bulldozer series, 4-6-8 cores on paper, 2-3-4 in the processor.
Let's be serious. nVidia is a small child next to AMD among these donkeys.

 

[ratirt]

Not that bad for the 7900 XTX but I honestly expected a bit more in overall score for that card. Not to mention the 7900 XT is in a very weird place to be honest. The price should not go above 800 for sure in the current market but the prices should go down for both RDNA3 and ADA because these are still ridiculous. There is an improvement for the 7900xtx over 6900xt though. Around 40% better for the same price (MSRP) but I feel AMD could have done slightly better and get closer to 4090 rather than 4080.
I'm skipping both vendors this time. I think that is the only right decision this time around.

 

[bearClaw5]

In the RT tests is DLSS or any upscaling used?

 

[W1zzard]

I'm disappointed to see even this review tries to make excuses for "missing driver optimizations". This is the sort of stuff I've come to expect from the likes of Hardware Unboxed and LTT, but not TPU.
Normally, architectural changes are the first to be implemented in a new driver, normally long before engineering samples are done. The only reason to postpone implementation of a core architectural feature is if there is some issue with the hardware. So I see no reason to expect any significant change from driver updates, at least not anything to make the product compete at a higher performance tier.

Driver compiler? Optimized for RDNA3?
The driver compiler is just a normal compiler, either MSVC, GCC or LLVM.
If you're thinking of the shader compiler, which is a part of the runtime driver, it must be tailored to the GPU architecture, otherwise it will simply not work.

This time it's different. The "architecture" (instruction set) really doesn't matter, I agree with you. What matters is that the new units are dual issue, so the HLSL shaders that get compiled must use a special compilation path that optimizes, merges and combines instructions and data in a way so that they become aligned with how the architecture performs best. This is a difficult task that often requires hand-optimized code.

Random paper that I pulled up to give you an idea: http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/aries/Documents/vliw.pdf

"Compiler" in this context means "shader compiler" of course, not the compiler that builds the driver code running on your PC

The good thing is that due to the way shader compiling and uploading works, AMD already has pretty much all the shader code that anyone ever compiled, so they can run statistical analysis on it, etc, they briefly touched on this in the press briefings. This is probably worth a separate thread, feel free to start one and link me.

In the RT tests is DLSS or any upscaling used?

No upscaling, would be an unfair comparison otherwise

 

[Space Lynx]

I don't think I am going to for the 7900 xtx after all. I was excited for it, but a grand is a lot of money, double the price of my 6800xt and honestly most of my games already cap out 165hz 165 fps 1440p gaming anyway.

It would have been nice playing AC Valhalla and other more demanding games at 165 fps 165hz ultra though. but I suppose turning down a couple settings to hit that 165 fps isn't the end of the world.

I also don't like that there is no zero fan anymore??? Fans don't stop when idle and it has a very high wattage idle draw, hmm, just seems like a rushed product. I think AMD should have waited a bit longer before releasing this card.

 

[Neo_Morpheus]

Wait, aren't you the same "Neo Morpheus" that is always trashing Nvidia and kissing AMD's behind at Techspot?

Yes, and many other other sites and the nvidia trashing is based on valid reasons. Feel free to find them there.

Welcome to Techpowerup!

Well, thank you!

 

[Melvis]

Drivers driver drivers......New Arch is going to take time to get all the bugs and performance issues sorted. Clearly the performance is there and the price to performance compared to Nvidia is good and honestly who gives a F about Raytracing.....but like all things AMD when it comes to there cards.......... Drivers!......give it 6-12months and the margin will close.

I wont be buying this card, anything over $600 is a big nope from me, Im having a hard time wanting to spend $569 on a 5800X3D...sighs and its on sale at $100 off! FFS

 

[Gica]

I think AMD should have waited a bit longer before releasing this card.

They had no choice. It is not good for the image or the profit to launch high performance video cards when the competition has launched almost the entire series, from premium to low cost. Taliban fans can wait for nVidia or AMD, but the "neutrals" are the most numerous and will buy what they find in stores, not ads.
They now released an XTX version because they had nowhere else to go. No chance for the 7950XTX to surpass the 4090, and nVidia has kept room for a possible 4090Ti. The RTX 4090 does not use the entire chip.

 

[W1zzard]

I also don't like that there is no zero fan anymore??? Fans don't stop when idle

The fans do stop when idle. They just keep spinning for a relatively long time during cooldown, which might have confused some reviewers. See my chart on the Temps page.

 

[the54thvoid]

Well, I'm sort of bummed by this generation. AIB cards will be interesting for noise etc, but price will be >1k, probably even for XT. Prices are ruining PC DIY community. Despite what many odd people think, not everyone can afford gfx cards at these prices. And the trickle down isn't working. A bloody 3070ti (Nvidia's 8th fastest card, and a generation old) is still 600-700 quid . I'm changing things in life right now and I can't justify these prices. They're responsible for my growing disinterest in PC hardware. It's great for those that can (buy a 4090, or 4080) but given what I'm seeing in reviews, the AMD cards need to be a lot cheaper. Frankly, Nvidia can still go screw themselves until they're cheaper too.

Another generation bypassed until prices collapse.

 

[Hofnaerrchen]

RDNA3 is an improvement over RDNA2 but should nVIDIA decide to pair the RTX 4080s pricing with the 7900XTX, than the nVIDIA product will be the better choice in my opinion. Not only for RT, even more for efficiency reasons. Something nVIDIA will most like focus it's marketing on. So far RDNA3 strongly reminds me of Vega - comparable performance at the cost of (much) higher power consumption. Somewhat dissappointing.

The good thing though: Might force both parties to reduce prices much earlier than expected. Good for customers.

 

[Space Lynx]

Well, I'm sort of bummed by this generation. AIB cards will be interesting for noise etc, but price will be >1k, probably even for XT. Prices are ruining PC DIY community. Despite what many odd people think, not everyone can afford gfx cards at these prices. And the trickle down isn't working. A bloody 3070ti (Nvidia's 8th fastest card, and a generation old) is still 600-700 quid . I'm changing things in life right now and I can't justify these prices. They're responsible for my growing disinterest in PC hardware. It's great for those that can (buy a 4090, or 4080) but given what I'm seeing in reviews, the AMD cards need to be a lot cheaper. Frankly, Nvidia can still go screw themselves until they're cheaper too.

Another generation bypassed until prices collapse.

Variety of hobbies is the healthiest way to be, I am actually surprised how easy it was for me to say no to the 7900 XTX today, it was consistent after every review I looked in to, and not something I was expecting. I'm happy with my 6800 XT, especially since I am a 1440p gamer for awhile to come and I have so much backlog, there is legit no reason for anymore power. Ray tracing still doesn't interest me, so no factor there.

In the mean time, I want to keep saving up the rest of my money and future earnings to go back to England to my fiance, that is my true happiness. I wish it was easier to get a work visa in England, I'd be with her right now still.

 

[gridracedriver]

RX 7900 XTX curve, practically has the handbrake on, average at 2.6ghz and only 0.90~0.95v.

For comparison curve RTX 4080

Average 2.75 ghz with 1.05v

As well as software in the dual issue, there is a hardware optimization left a little behind, the x50 between driver and clock fix could easily make +20% on these x00 ?

We will see if N32 still has these problems.

 

[Chomiq]

It's like 90% of the time AMD is playing catch-up. On top of that we're still seeing issues that were present since at least the 5xxx series (multi monitor power draw that was suppose to be resolved by driver update).

 

[Space Lynx]

It's like 90% of the time AMD is playing catch-up. On top of that we're still seeing issues that were present since at least the 5xxx series (multi monitor power draw that was suppose to be resolved by driver update).

I do think AMD would be better office hunkering down on what they do best, instead of feeling the need to always have something Nvidia has exclusivity too. Like ray tracing, let Nvidia have it, all the time and resources spent on that could have been spent on a more polished product.

AMD's message could have been simple, if you want ray tracing buy Nvidia, but here is what we can offer you. Personally, I just want the smoothness of 165 fps 165hz gaming at medium to high settings. Unfortunately, some games like RDR2 still can't hit that, even with the bells and whistles turned off.

 

[Bwaze]

Good, thorough review, thanks to a involved.

But these releases only confirm the new reality - that "upper midrange" is now 1000 - 1200 USD. Yeah, AMD is a bit cheaper, but with slower raytracing, less powerful upscaling, less usability outside gaming, various bugs that are reoccurring (very high multimonitor idle power draw) it also has a bit less value.

I'm sure they'll be able to sell all the cards they will be able to make, but I don't think these products are in any way forcing Nvidia to lower the prices of RTX 4080 and upcoming RTX 4070 Ti...

I also don't think that roughly matching Nvidia prices is the way to greater market share. But I think that's OK by AMD, they know how many cards they can produce.

 

[Flanker]

Nice. No upgrade itch for me

 

[medi01]

Despite all the culling optimizations, they don't do so good in ray tracing

This sort of comment blows my mind.
I've expected way bigger gap than just 16%.
Actually, AMD had closed the gap.

It is raster performance that I expected to be better, to be honest.

Especially, given the chip sizes: 380mm2 vs mixed salad of 530 total, with biggest chip 300 or so.

But then, 4090 is only 22% faster. Diminishing returns sI guess. And very likely Finewine will happen shortly.

Huge multimonitor consumption

Only in weird setups it seems (and I guess that is how it slept through QA). Formidably low power consumption in dual monitor setup test by computerbase.

Nvidia prices have nothing to do with AMD falling to offer an RTX 4080 killer at $1000.

People keep repeating it, but I simply do not see it.

Last gen NV was forced to DROP A TIER on their GPUs (remember that weird 10GB 3080 vs 12GB 3060? Guess why that happened)

This gen NV was forced to "unlaunch" smaller 4080, it stacked so bad against RDNA3.

So what we have is a product $200 cheaper than 4080, that is a bit faster at raster and 14% slower at RT.
Mix "features" in, use RT perf es metric and you get roughly the same perf/$.

Amazing for NV is that:
It is just 380mm2 vs 500+ on competitor (mkay, chiplets even it up a bit... or not that much?)
It only has 16GB of that more expensive VRAM vs 24GB on competitor.

-----------------------------------------------------

Had anyone napkin math-ed chip costs, 4080 vs 7900XTX?

 

[Bomby569]

I can't get my head around how people even consider this a good value. Nevermind the paper launch ( especially on Europe as usual) on reddit the price for a aib model was 1300€
https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/zgqi13 and it doesn't seem farfetched at all

I get most of people in TPU don't really represent your typical average gpu buyer, but damn are you all diving Lambos or some shit.

Reviewers are even worst.

I think at this rate looking for prices or last gen cards for nvidia and amd in Europe, this is going to insane lengths and i doubt it's sustainable.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Those cards should have been priced 500$ and 750$ in my opinion.
The new trend in prices is a disaster for the consumer... sad

 

[Bwaze]

$1000 + VAT + higher seller margins than in US should be no less than 1200 EUR in Germany with 19% VAT, of course higher elsewhere.

But that's base model price, AIB partners will of course also offer models with much higher prices.

I think at this rate looking for prices or last gen cards for nvidia and amd in Europe, this is going to insane lengths and i doubt it's sustainable.

Price / performance wise RX 7900 XTX is better than RTX 4080, but yeah, only on par with previous generation - so ZERO price / performance increase.

What's worrying is that RX 7900 XT has worse price / performance than XTX and last gen cards - what does that tell us about upcoming midrange cards? Don't bother, buy RX 6000's?

 

[RainingTacco]

how about PRODUCTIVITY TESTS?
x264, AV1 H265
CONDING ENGOCING DECODING VIRGINING?

It's crap, rendering time[blender] is double of 4080.